Electronic computing devices exist that do not have traditional text input capabilities, i.e. keyboards or key number pads. Such devices may not have keyboards or number pads because of their physical size, e.g. hand-held personal digital assistants, or because it is not convenient to use the device with a keyboard, e.g. an Internet appliance which is designed to connect to a common television set and is operable only by a television remote control.
Although such devices do not have keyboards or key number pads, it is often necessary for the devices to possess traditional text input capabilities. For example, a user of an Internet appliance may need to type in a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address in order to direct the Internet appliance to display a particular page of interest. This URL address requires alphanumeric data entry, which traditionally has been done by a keyboard.
Some information appliances attempt to solve this problem by providing a software "pop-up" keyboard. Software "pop-up" keyboards are screen displays that are local to the device and allow the user to enter alphanumeric information by navigating the screen display on the local device.
Although these software devices enable traditional text input capabilities in electronic devices lacking keyboards and key pads, because they are local to the device they: occupy the memory space of the local device, which may be limited; require complex or unwieldy screen management techniques in order to distinguish keyboard events and other program events; and are not client-node independent, which limits the number of server applications that may be able to accept input from them.